iTunes Countdown to 100 Million

[MacRumors]

In a new promotion (http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/), Apple is giving away iPods, Powerbooks, and a 10,000 song iTMS gift certificate in recognition of it's approach to the 100 million song mark.

When the number of songs downloaded from Apple’s iTunes Music Store crosses 95 million, Apple will begin the countdown to 100 million songs by giving away 50 special 20GB iPods—one to the purchaser of each 100,000th song downloaded between 95 million and 100 million songs. In addition, the person who downloads the 100 millionth song will receive a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod, a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs to create the ultimate music library for the iPod and the opportunity to create a Celebrity Playlist to be published on the iTunes Music Store.

As of this posting, the store had sold 94,496,906 songs.

[Chip NoVaMac]

Neat promotion. I wonder how many hackers are going to try and figure out just how to be the big winner.

[Poff]

Why don't I have access to the music store yet?? Norway before 100 million please?

[Get A Mac]

I wonder how long they'll keep that song countdown. It seems like it would be too easy for people to time their purchases.

Otherwise, this is an awesome promotion! One more excuse to buy iTunes songs, thanks Apple.

[ultimind]

the song count doesn't seem to dynamically update, unless there's several hours between each song purchase. hehe. Apple would be smart to put a dynamically updated counter on there, or atleast once-per-hour update...because once it gets real close, they'll see a HUGE explosion of song purchases for people trying to win the iPod.

[choogheem]

I wonder if you tilt your screen at a certain angle that will increase the chances of winning. :D

Did anyone else notice that there are 2 free songs to download? Click on the free song, click on the album, go to favorite iMixes and click the free songs iMix. At the bottom of the list is 2 free songs.

[Get A Mac]

It's updated every minute.

EDIT: Actually it's every 5 minutes on the dot.

the song count doesn't seem to dynamically update, unless there's several hours between each song purchase. hehe. Apple would be smart to put a dynamically updated counter on there, or atleast once-per-hour update...because once it gets real close, they'll see a HUGE explosion of song purchases for people trying to win the iPod.

[Chip NoVaMac]

4,432 songs in like 12 minutes since this posting.

[caveman_uk]

We're invited too....cool :D

[DavidLeblond]

the song count doesn't seem to dynamically update, unless there's several hours between each song purchase. hehe. Apple would be smart to put a dynamically updated counter on there, or atleast once-per-hour update...because once it gets real close, they'll see a HUGE explosion of song purchases for people trying to win the iPod.

No, if they put the counter up then no one would buy at all because everyone would be going "I can't buy a song now, its not close to the million mark!!!!"

Besides, it takes all the fun out of it if you KNOW you aren't going to win when you buy a song.

Now if you want to ENSURE you win, you just have to buy 503,094 songs.

[degrush]

I wonder if anyone will take a chance and just buy songs like crazy, say 1000 of them, in hopes of getting the $14,000 prize. If only you could add a bunch of songs to a shopping cart then buy them all at once.

[AliensAreFuzzy]

Come on. Oh I want that Powerbook

[seamuskrat]

OK, I am blind, Where is the actual song count?

I wonder how long they'll keep that song countdown. It seems like it would be too easy for people to time their purchases.

Otherwise, this is an awesome promotion! One more excuse to buy iTunes songs, thanks Apple.

[degrush]

OK, I am blind, Where is the actual song count?

Its on the front page of apple.com

[sebisworld]

Hey guys, you know who's gonna purchase the 100,000,001 song? Yep, thats me.

[iDo]

Hey guys, you know who's gonna purchase the 100,000,001 song? Yep, thats me.

I wonder how you find out though? Is it on the invoice or anything??

[Machead III]

WOW! Nice new advert! If Apple pump that all over TV, especially in the UK, they will practically guarentee themselves another million songs in the following 2 bloody days!

[Kirkland]

If only you could add a bunch of songs to a shopping cart then buy them all at once.

Preferences -> Store

Check off "Buy Using a Shopping Cart" .... I've had it on since the Music Store first went online, I'd end up buying way too much with the 1-click shopping :p

[whooleytoo]

I wonder if anyone will take a chance and just buy songs like crazy, say 1000 of them, in hopes of getting the $14,000 prize. If only you could add a bunch of songs to a shopping cart then buy them all at once.

Actually, you can do that, can't you?

[hokka]

I'm in Australia, so of course missing out, but geez, it's gonna get some of you punters fingers (and the bank account) hot, hehe... but what a great promotion, I doubt if any other competitors put up a similar promotion it would be this huge. I think it's gonna get to 100 Mill a lot quicker than they predicted, it's gonna get faster and faster for those that really want the grand daddy.

We have to get the winner on this foorum to discribe the experience (unless it's just some one struck luck by the first go).

Yeah, yeah!

[BlueDjinn]

4,432 songs in like 12 minutes since this posting.

Ya'know, they should have waited until *after* they crossed the 95-million mark before announcing it!

Think about it--with a half-million songs to go before the giveaway starts, is anyone who knows about the promo going to purchase their music *before* it hits that point? Not me! I'll wait until after it crosses the magic number--and if *everyone* waits until then, no one will buy any music, which means it will never reach the number in the first place!

OK, it'll take a little while for word to spread, so of course they *will* sell another half-million before everyone knows about it, but I suspect sales will actually *slow down* considerably before the 95-million point...at which point they'll take off like a rocket!

[sinisterdesign]

like i need more of an excuse to buy tunes?

c'mon Apple, i'm trying to buy a loft. stop taking my money...

[AirUncleP]

Good idea Apple. Now lets see how you advertise it. My guess is the Mac Forums users will know about it and that about it.

[mainstreetmark]

I doubt if i could find 10,000 songs on iTMS. I'd be giving people 10 song gift certs for their birthdays and christmas for years.

[macridah]

awesome promo. I just added 12 songs to the countdown, but i didn't win an ipod. I will try again.

[pEZ]

I would be severely depressed if the 100,000,000th song winner was a PC user....or worse, a windows activist....

[Stike]

From the promo homepage:
All iTunes Music Store customers in the US, UK, France and Germany are eligible. No purchase necessary.
What the heck??
I dont need to buy!?!?!

[ziwi]

It will be mine, oh yes it will be mine.

[hokka]

LMAO! Stike, I like your .gif, was it just for this occasion or has it always been there?

[gekko513]

At 95mill / 400 days = 237500 songs per day, the race will be on in two days time :D Good luck to all those who are able to participate ... unfortunately I'm in Norway :(

Edit: Oh ... Apple claims that the 95000000th song will be sold tomorrow. I guess the sale rate is higher now than in the beginning :o

[michaelrjohnson]

I doubt if i could find 10,000 songs on iTMS. I'd be giving people 10 song gift certs for their birthdays and christmas for years.

I feel the same way... It'd be great to shop till I drop, but realistically, that's just too much music to buy. (I wonder if they give you a time limit that the winner has to spend it by? I bet!)

[theimacguy]

Did anyone else notice that there are 2 free songs to download? Click on the free song, click on the album, go to favorite iMixes and click the free songs iMix. At the bottom of the list is 2 free songs.

Good tip. :)

[michaelrjohnson]

From the promo homepage:

What the heck??
I dont need to buy!?!?!

Correct.

It is illegal to have a promotion (in the US) where you require somebody to purchase something to be eligible. That's why you always hear "No Purchase Necessary". You'll probably have to mail in your name and address, then you'll be put in the queue or something of that nature.

[amols]

I think they will hit 100M before this Tuesday with this speed.I wonder if WMA and RealOne services ever come out with such ideas.

[Stike]

LMAO! Stike, I like your .gif, was it just for this occasion or has it always been there?
My avatar existed prior to this promotion! :D

[Pipian]

Where is the counter with the number of songs sold?

[mymemory]

What do I do? what do I do? to buy songs all the time until I reach the person 100 million? :confused:

[michaelrjohnson]

Where is the counter with the number of songs sold?

The counter (updated every 5 minutes) of the current number of iTunes songs sold internationally is located at Apple.com (http://www.apple.com)

[FelixDerKater]

Aah! Now I wish I would have waited a bit longer. I just bought some albums the other day. Oh well...

[jbembe]

Is this definitely an international promotion or is there some small print about people having to be called "Tex" and drive petrol-guzzling cars with a gun-rack in the back?

Not that there's a chance of doing any online shopping in Holland til song 2x10E50 anyway.

Come on, I'm the only one of my beer-drinking, deer-poaching, truck drivin' friends who knows how to use a computer!!! GET REAL!

DROOOL, I want a 17" powerbook. Hmmm, 10,000 songs would fill at least half of the hard drive, hope whoever wins doesn't want it for anything else but iTunes (but then what else do you need a computer for anyway?)

Time to start purchasing each and every song from my wish list and my bookmarks from Daily Tunes...

[invaLPsion]

This could backfire seriously. There will be a lot of sales around the 100,000 marks. Then a slump to the next 100,000. A lot of sales. slump. A lot of sales. slump. etc... :D

[jenniff]

I wonder if the free music downloads count toward the total, or whether it is only purchased music.

[jvaska]

I wonder if the free music downloads count toward the total, or whether it is only purchased music.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/ (bottom of the page)

"No purchase necessary."...hmmm...

[AstroPlain]

This could backfire seriously. There will be a lot of sales around the 100,000 marks. Then a slump to the next 100,000. A lot of sales. slump. A lot of sales. slump. etc... :D

Most people aren't going to follow it that closely, and they won't know or care about another iPod giveaway. The only way I would do it is if I had a lot of songs queued up in my Shopping Cart... If anything, there will be a rush at the 100 million mark.

[rweidmann]

they were at 85 Million on June 8. This means 24 days for 10 million songs which is a about 3 million a week. they were at 3.3 million a week a while ago and this was before the European store opened.

[degrush]

I wonder if it counts your purchase when you click buy, or when each individual song finished downloading?

[Lancetx]

they were at 85 Million on June 8. This means 24 days for 10 million songs which is a about 3 million a week. they were at 3.3 million a week a while ago and this was before the European store opened.

I'm sure it's seasonal. More people are outside and taking vacations during the summer months than they will be in January for example. In just the past couple of hours, they've sold over 43,000 so they're doing pretty good I'd say.

[whooleytoo]

I doubt if i could find 10,000 songs on iTMS. I'd be giving people 10 song gift certs for their birthdays and christmas for years.

You certainly could make lots of new friends in Canada..Ireland...Sweden..Italy..Spain.... ;)

[mainemike]

I wonder if anyone will take a chance and just buy songs like crazy, say 1000 of them, in hopes of getting the $14,000 prize. If only you could add a bunch of songs to a shopping cart then buy them all at once.

As others have mentioned, you can use a shopping cart in iTMS.

Hmmm....you could wait for the next "wave crest" - when the next 100,000 counter mark approaches - and then purchase one of those 100+ song playlists (ie., "Independence 100") :eek:

[J-Squire]

they were at 85 Million on June 8. This means 24 days for 10 million songs which is a about 3 million a week. they were at 3.3 million a week a while ago and this was before the European store opened.

I don't know if Apple ever announced that they were consistently selling 3.3 million a week. I'm pretty sure that figure was announced as a record for a weeks worth of sales, and occured just after a large announcement (maybe the Superbowl, or the iTunes 1 year anniversary.....can't remember). But I don't think this was a sustainable rate at that point. To be at a rate of 3million per week consistently is awesome!

[faintedlife]

I feel the same way... It'd be great to shop till I drop, but realistically, that's just too much music to buy. (I wonder if they give you a time limit that the winner has to spend it by? I bet!)

You're weak. :) I could seriously spend $5,000 for music any day of the week. Minus the fact that I don't have $5,000, and my modem would explode trying to download all that. This promotion ROCKS! Nevertheless it could be the thing that jump starts my massive music library I want to create.

[michaelrjohnson]

You're weak. :) I could seriously spend $5,000 for music any day of the week. Minus the fact that I don't have $5,000, and my modem would explode trying to download all that. This promotion ROCKS! Nevertheless it could be the thing that jump starts my massive music library I want to create.

Whoops, i meant to say "...too much music to buy at one time" (thus the comment about the time limit) ;)

[danieluk]

[faintedlife]

Whoops, i meant to say "...too much music to buy at one time" (thus the comment about the time limit) ;)
haha. Okay. At one time, that'd be too overwhelming.

I'd probably have to live in secluded mountains for five years just to get a taste of what you could buy at a one time 10,000 song splurge.

[amols]

Last 1 hour = 30,000
One day = 720,000
One week = 5M+

You know where this is going :) :)

[grouse]

I'm sure others are doing this, but at the current rate 2,500 songs, every five minutes, that makes 30,000 an hour = 720,000 a day and 5,040,000 a week. Now this is assuming a flat selling line.

If it's 2,500 at about 4:30pm BST, 5:30pm SET, and 11:30am in the US, we're probably not at the optimum selling period, which I would assume would be evenings? The servers are probably busiest when it's about
5:00pm on the east coast? Which means that most of Europe is still online and at home, kids in bed etc...

And of course the rate at 5:00am BST is almost certainly not too strong, except for insomniacs. Weekend's should be stronger, unless everyone's doing this at work, and in terms of internet stats, they always fall in the summer (except for specific summer sporting events).

Anyway, I guess I'll have to be in work for about 7:30am BST tomorrow morning to see the 95,000,000 mark passed. And it's BETWEEN those two numbers isn't it, so whaddya think the first one's going to be given away at about....? 11am BST, so you folks in the US are going to have to up bright and early...

Good luck y'all

[Dave00]

Correct.

It is illegal to have a promotion (in the US) where you require somebody to purchase something to be eligible. That's why you always hear "No Purchase Necessary". You'll probably have to mail in your name and address, then you'll be put in the queue or something of that nature.
Usually how this is done is you have to send in your name, address, etc. on a SASE and they'll send you a "game piece." I've no idea how they'd fit this in with the song count; because an individual getting a "game piece" shouldn't be counted toward the song total. Anyway, it wouldn't make any sense to get a game piece for this promotion; the cost in stamps alone would be 37c x 2 = 74 cents; why not spend the extra quarter and get a song to boot.

--D

[MrToast]

Makes you wonder what the downloader of the billionth song will get! :eek:

Too bad I don't have a credit card or it would be maxed out by now on iTunes... :rolleyes:

MrToast

[Don't panic]

ok, so who's going to keep track and give us daily, weekly and trends charts?
how about a widget itunes ticker? and while you're at it, can you make me one for folding@home (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=21908)?

[Applespider]

LOL! I only have iTunes at home. I can just imagine taking my current PB down to Starbucks at 99,999,500 to try to order the winning song over wifi if it's during working hours!

Or will a magic app appear on Version Tracker that sets your iTunes shopping process off when certain numbers appear! :p

[michaelrjohnson]

...why not spend the extra quarter and get a song to boot.

No computer?

Anyhow... I know I'll be entering the promotion by buying a few songs, I've got a gift card waiting to be used ;)

[grouse]

The thing with being rewarded for inadvertantly co-inciding with an event outside of your control means that this is covered.

You are effectively being thanked for your custom. You are not entering a competition by buying something. Look at the language in the promotion, all carefully worded. No one is "winning" anything they are "receiving" something, things are being "given away". It's a gift, not a reward.

[MrToast]

Just updated....

Delta 2232 songs in 5 minutes.
That's 446.4 songs per minute
That's 26784 songs per hour
That's 642816 songs per day
That's 4499712 songs per week.

Man, this is such GREAT advertising. I'll bet the record companies are peeing their pants they're so happy.

Go Apple!

:D

MrToast

[Don't panic]

The thing with being rewarded for inadvertantly co-inciding with an event outside of your control means that this is covered.

You are effectively being thanked for your custom. You are not entering a competition by buying something. Look at the language in the promotion, all carefully worded. No one is "winning" anything they are "receiving" something, things are being "given away". It's a gift, not a reward.

according to apple.com, someone is "winning"

[~Shard~]

Makes you wonder what the downloader of the billionth song will get! :eek:

I think he'll receive one of the mythical 3 GHz PowerMacs. By the time the billionth song is downloaded I'm sure it's still be an urban legend and people will be questioning its release... ;) :cool:

[BornAgainMac]

That would be funny if Bill Gates won the big prize.

[~Shard~]

I think this is an excellent promotion. And yes, people are no doubt going to try and find ways to predict when the important songs will be downloaded, and there may be nuts out there who try downloading 1000 songs, but in the end, this is probably exactly what Apple wants! As a result of this promotion there is going to be a significant increase in downloads from iTMS, which means more revenue for Apple!

Now if only they had iTMS in Canada.... :( ;)

[Dave00]

This could backfire seriously. There will be a lot of sales around the 100,000 marks. Then a slump to the next 100,000. A lot of sales. slump. A lot of sales. slump. etc... :D
Unlikely. Given that there are several hundred thousand sold every day, and that there's probably some lag between the actual number and the update on Apple's front page, it'd be nearly impossible to try to time your purchase. Not that I'm not going to try. :) I would think that it would spur alot of people to keep pushing reload on the counter page, which might create some problems with Apple's server.

--D

[svenas1]

Just updated....

Delta 2232 songs in 5 minutes.
That's 446.4 songs per minute
That's 26784 songs per hour
That's 642816 songs per day
That's 4499712 songs per week.

Man, this is such GREAT advertising. I'll bet the record companies are peeing their pants they're so happy.

Go Apple!

:D

MrToast

just calculated 475 songs/minnute - so these numbers seem fairly accurate. But I wonder how uniform sales are going to be across 24 hrs. We should do a longer comparison and check 24hr data. ;-)

[~Shard~]

Unlikely. Given that there are several hundred thousand sold every day, and that there's probably some lag between the actual number and the update on Apple's front page, it'd be nearly impossible to try to time your purchase. Not that I'm not going to try. :) I would think that it would spur alot of people to keep pushing reload on the counter page, which might create some problems with Apple's server.

I agree, I don't see any slumps in sales either. As for people hammering Apple's site to refresh the main page, I could see this happening too. Hmm, maybe Apple has just provided us with a lesson on "How to Successfully Launch a DoS Attack on Yourself"... ;)

[michaelrjohnson]

The thing with being rewarded for inadvertantly co-inciding with an event outside of your control means that this is covered.

You are effectively being thanked for your custom. You are not entering a competition by buying something. Look at the language in the promotion, all carefully worded. No one is "winning" anything they are "receiving" something, things are being "given away". It's a gift, not a reward.


I guess i'm not sure of your point. It's not a game of words, its a law to prevent the exclusion of people (I can't find a statement of this law, though)

[michaelrjohnson]

just calculated 475 songs/minnute - so these numbers seem fairly accurate. But I wonder how uniform sales are going to be across 24 hrs. We should do a longer comparison and check 24hr data. ;-)

This is turning into a research project!
:eek:

[Dave00]

ok, so who's going to keep track and give us daily, weekly and trends charts?
It's a shame the numbers are put up as an image file; if there were a way to actually pull the number off the page one could make a nice little tracker...

[autrefois]

Apple says, on http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/, "watch for Official Rules."

Isn't it odd to prominently advertise a promotion and not post the official rules at the same time, especially considering how close they are to 95 million?

In my opinion, if "no purchase" is indeed necessary, people downloading a free tune should be eligible to win. Sending an entry in by "snail mail" doesn't seem to make sense, as others have pointed out.

Can one download a free song an unlimited number of times? Couldn't we just keep downloading free songs in hopes of winning?

I assume they would find a way around this in the rules, but I don't see how else they can have no purchase necessary and still base it on the download count.

[AliensAreFuzzy]

Just bought a gift card from Target. Probably going to get another. Now I just have to figure out what songs to download. :rolleyes:

[Iroganai]

It's a shame the numbers are put up as an image file; if there were a way to actually pull the number off the page one could make a nice little tracker...

Numbers can be seen in text in http://www.apple.com/itunes/.
Or more directly at http://phobos.apple.com/external_counter.js

[Doctor Q]

Anytime I've looked at the details of a "no purchase necessary" promotion, there has been a requirement to send each entry by postal mail, one entry per envelope. That means you must may postage (37 cents in the U.S.) for each entry.

I expect Apple's rules to be the same. So Apple wouldn't charge you to play, but you'd have to pay postage, which would limit you to the number of stamps and envelopes you were willing to pay for. And you wouldn't get any music!

[Nikko1965]

Now if I were an unscrupulous iTMS Sys Admin sat in front of the old billing terminal my mobile phone wouldn't be out my hand until all the women I fancied and most of my drinking buddies were iPodded. Then I'd really be looking forward to the weekend.

[Sabbath]

I think someone need to log me out of iTMS and change my password, this promotion could be seriously dangerous! :rolleyes:

Its a really good promotion though, I wonder what the special iPods will be like and I kind of hope its just a random person who gets the big prize and not someone trying to get it. Although it would be cool for a macrumors member to win it heheh :)

[Freg3000]

Here is a graph using the all known data from Apple over the last 60+ weeks:

[MrToast]

A program is on the way to live update the download count!

Just give me a couple minutes...

MrToast

[puckhead193]

a nice little promotion deal...But they still have alot of music to sell...off to itunes :p

[Freg3000]

A program is on the way to live update the download count!

Just give me a couple minutes...

MrToast

:) This could be dangerous.

[jessefoxperry]

A program is on the way to live update the download count!

Just give me a couple minutes...

MrToast

awesome. you mean bypassing the 5 min. update? if so, keep up the good work. :)

[Lancetx]

At the present rate the songs have been selling this morning anyway, they would reach the 100 Million mark on the afternoon (U.S. time) of Saturday, July 10th.

[denm316]

I feel the same way... It'd be great to shop till I drop, but realistically, that's just too much music to buy. (I wonder if they give you a time limit that the winner has to spend it by? I bet!)


That would suck if they gave you a time limit, but i wouldnt be surprised, or it will be some rule you cant buy new releases, it will be something to piss everyone off.

[jessefoxperry]

does anyone know if the covers on apple.com's front page are the last 10 songs bought or just random album covers? im not too skilled of a javascript reader to find out myself. :D

[alandail]

A program is on the way to live update the download count!

Just give me a couple minutes...

MrToast

Cool - you could have a lot of fun with a program like that - keep historical data, show the real time sales rate, estimate the time remaining to hit the next iPod giveaway, estimate the time remaining to the 100 millionth song, etc.

[MrToast]

awesome. you mean bypassing the 5 min. update? if so, keep up the good work. :)

It will report a new number every time the .js file is updated. If that's once every five minutes, then it's the same as the site. However, if they update the file faster, then the program will update faster. Right now it's set to check the file once a second. Don't worry, it won't be a CPU sucker.

MrToast

[jessefoxperry]

It will report a new number every time the .js file is updated. If that's once every five minutes, then it's the same as the site. However, if they update the file faster, then the program will update faster. Right now it's set to check the file once a second. Don't worry, it won't be a CPU sucker.

MrToast

yea that's what i figured, its all up to apple how fast they update it. still sounds cool - beats reloadin apple.com every 2 min.

if ya need hosting for the program i can provide

[autrefois]

does anyone know if the covers on apple.com's front page are the last 10 songs bought or just random album covers? im not too skilled of a javascript reader to find out myself. :D

I was wondering the same thing. Any way we could find out?

[macridah]

so 94, 600, 000 + sold. Some lucky person got a free ipod. It didn't take that long to sell 100,000. do you think this promo is boosting sales?

[mainemike]

Apple should reach 100 mil long before the new Sony players come out...but those Sony players won't be able to handle iTMS anyway.
Think these players will significantly dent the iPod market?
Personally, I don't see a price-to-gig advantage with this Sony player (20GB drive for less than $400). This thing can't even play MP3s, for cryin' out loud!

<< As with Sony's other players, the NW-HD1 plays songs in the company's proprietary ATRAC format only, meaning it is not compatible with other online stores and cannot play tunes in the popular MP3 format. >>

[Lancetx]

so 94, 600, 000 + sold. Some lucky person got a free ipod. It didn't take that long to sell 100,000. do you think this promo is boosting sales?

The per 100,000 sold iPod giveaway promo doesn't start till the ticker hits 95 Million, so not yet. We're still about 16 hours away at the current rate of sales.

[virividox]

100 million finally!!! i cant wait till the music store caters to asia; and i mean all of asia

[johnpaul191]

the page on apple.com says "special 20 gig iPods"... are they special because they are free?

[Mudbug]

The per 100,000 sold iPod giveaway promo doesn't start till the ticker hits 95 Million, so not yet. We're still about 16 hours away at the current rate of sales.


Lancetx is right - doesn't start until 95 million.
But something interesting to point out is that it shouldn't take too much longer to get there - this is an increase of over 100,000 songs in just a little over 4 hours. That's pretty astounding.

[degrush]

the page on apple.com says "special 20 gig iPods"... are they special because they are free?

Maybe they are engraved with something like "95,100,000 songs sold"

[nagromme]

Another graph of iTunes sales (just below the iPod sales graph):

http://www.ipodlounge.com/articles_more.php?id=4280_0_8_0_M#sales

The double free songs is interesting--I suppose it could be some very specific, small-scale promotion by Apple or the label, promoted at some specific event or someting--resulting in that one free song for a very short time. Maybe it's too small an issue to be worth having a code system like Pepsi?

It's NOT one of the past free songs because I have them all :D (And they are a... mixed bag, shall we say. Which is sensible really.)

[macridah]

The per 100,000 sold iPod giveaway promo doesn't start till the ticker hits 95 Million, so not yet. We're still about 16 hours away at the current rate of sales.

That's right ... good catch. Does some lucky person get on @ 95 mil or 95,100, 000?

So I'll put off on my download for a couple of hours. I wonder how the apple page will look when they hit 100 mil?

[jtquick2001]

If only you could add a bunch of songs to a shopping cart then buy them all at once.[/QUOTE]


Thats what I am doing.

[sinisterdesign]

while you programming gurus are at it, can you give me a hand picking some numbers for this?
http://www.galottery.com/

it's up to $290M, so if you give me the correct numbers, i'll be more than happy to split it. ;)

and if i win the lottery, i'll buy the remaining songs to get to 100M on iTMS, just so i can have my smiling, obscenely rich mug on apple.com and so i can make my celebrity playlist (which would have to be $ongs themed w/ money).

[MrToast]

Hi Everyone!

I have created a VERY simple application that will count how many songs have been downloaded from the iTMS. It will not keep track of past counts. This is just to save you from refreshing Apple.com (http://www.apple.com) every 3 minutes. :D

Also, this doesn't work if you're behind serious firewalls.

Preliminary tests show that the number changes every 2 or 3 minutes, which means that the "Update" button won't be too useful. ;)

Get it here: (Windows and Mac OS X in the same archive)
http://mrtoast.spymac.net/iTMS.zip

Thanks to Seth Willits for compiling. Visit his site! http://www.freaksw.com Buy his software! :cool:

Enjoy! (Feel free to mirror the archive)

MrToast

[m.r.m.]

i don't have a credit card. too bad itunes music store doesn't accept bank transfer. which student has a credit card?

[alandail]

i don't have a credit card. too bad itunes music store doesn't accept bank transfer. which student has a credit card?

you can buy yourself iTunes gift cards.

[IndyGopher]

i don't have a credit card. too bad itunes music store doesn't accept bank transfer. which student has a credit card?
Umm.. pretty much every student with a U.S. mailing address if the numbers the credit card companies tout (and then complain about re: defaulting) are to be believed.

[ITR 81]

Looks like the avg. rate is around 4,000+- songs every 5 mins.

The lowest being around 3,000 songs every 5 mins.

The highest being around 5,000 songs every 5 mins.

Just bought 2 songs.

94,628,050 so far.

[upperblue79]

I noticed this promotion on macrumors, so I went ahead and starting buying, I bought 5 songs before I started reading the forums to realize there was a counter on apple.com. LOL

[michaelrjohnson]

you can buy yourself iTunes gift cards.

I personally find this to be the best way anyhow... It helps me curb my iTMS spending (which isn't a whole lot) by forcing me to go make a special trip to a store that carries the cards. That way, I'll use the Gift Card $ instead of directly from my account.

[upperblue79]

Does anyone know how they are counting the song downloads. What I mean is, if you purchase an album I would assume each song is counted individually, but are they all together or as they download?

[LimeiBook86]

Those prizes are mine!!!
<speeds away on a bike, bike gets flat tire, im stuck in the middle of the street>

D'oh! :rolleyes:

[jjmaximum]

Hi Everyone!

I have created a VERY simple application that will count how many songs have been downloaded from the iTMS. It will not keep track of past counts. This is just to save you from refreshing Apple.com (http://www.apple.com) every 3 minutes. :D

Also, this doesn't work if you're behind serious firewalls.

Preliminary tests show that the number changes every 2 or 3 minutes, which means that the "Update" button won't be too useful. ;)

Get it here: (Windows and Mac OS X in the same archive)
http://mrtoast.spymac.net/iTMS.zip

Thanks to Seth Willits for compiling. Visit his site! http://www.freaksw.com Buy his software! :cool:

Enjoy! (Feel free to mirror the archive)

MrToast

[tveric]

I wonder if anyone will take a chance and just buy songs like crazy, say 1000 of them, in hopes of getting the $14,000 prize. If only you could add a bunch of songs to a shopping cart then buy them all at once.

Yeah, that would be super-smart.

I have another tip for you - buy 1,000 Big Game lottery tickets! That way you have 1000 chances to win the $200 million jackpot. Sound investment.

[Dom Martin]

What an unbelievably tight @rsed promotion! I think I'd celebrate $100m of revenue a damned sight more generously than a handful of iPods and um er
a laptop.
Is Apple getting too greedy for it's own good?

[Mason]

Here's my guess:

The "special" 20 gb ipds are the next generation ipods. My guess is that once they reach the 100 million mark they will announce new storage capacities (20,40,60) and maybe some new mini ipod storage capacities, too.

[killmoms]

What an unbelievably tight @rsed promotion! I think I'd celebrate $100m of revenue a damned sight more generously than a handful of iPods and um er
a laptop.
Is Apple getting too greedy for it's own good?
Some folks will b*tch about anything. :rolleyes:

--Cless

[ruud]

i whipped up a graph showing the total number of songs and the rate at which songs are purchased. interesting to see how this will develop over time. see http://itunescounter.ruud.org/

[coolfactor]

What an unbelievably tight @rsed promotion! I think I'd celebrate $100m of revenue a damned sight more generously than a handful of iPods and um er
a laptop.
Is Apple getting too greedy for it's own good?

Do remember that it's $100m in "revenue", not profit. They are giving away $32,800 dollars in prizes. That's quite a significant chunk of profits, if you ask me.

[Don't panic]

Hi Everyone!

I have created a VERY simple application that will count how many songs have been downloaded from the iTMS. It will not keep track of past counts. This is just to save you from refreshing Apple.com (http://www.apple.com) every 3 minutes. :D

Also, this doesn't work if you're behind serious firewalls.

Preliminary tests show that the number changes every 2 or 3 minutes, which means that the "Update" button won't be too useful. ;)

Get it here: (Windows and Mac OS X in the same archive)
http://mrtoast.spymac.net/iTMS.zip

Thanks to Seth Willits for compiling. Visit his site! http://www.freaksw.com Buy his software! :cool:

Enjoy! (Feel free to mirror the archive)

MrToast

Hi mr. Toast,
I'm impressed by the speed in producing the app, but I can't get it to work.
If I click on iTMS counter, i get an excel file full of gibberish?
Am I missing something? (I'm on 10.2.8)

[autrefois]

What an unbelievably tight @rsed promotion! I think I'd celebrate $100m of revenue a damned sight more generously than a handful of iPods and um er
a laptop.
Is Apple getting too greedy for it's own good?

Free laptops for everyone!!! :D

But seriously—you're forgetting that the 1 millionth downloader get 10,000 free songs as well.

[Solver]

To have a "free" chance you need:

74 cents (for two stamps)
Two envelopes
and time.

And for all that, you get no songs.

[MrToast]

Hi mr. Toast,
I'm impressed by the speed in producing the app, but I can't get it to work.
If I click on iTMS counter, i get an excel file full of gibberish?
Am I missing something? (I'm on 10.2.8)

Ah, I believe you need Panther. It's in how Panther creates archives of files. You can select multiple files, right click, and choose "create archive". That's what I (actually Seth (http://www.freaksw.com), who compiled them) did.

Perhaps you may have noticed a "_MACOSX" folder that was created when you unzipped it. This folder contains the resource forks of the files, and is only correctly intrepreted by Panther.

Sorry, I didn't think to mention that.

BTW, the apps were created with REALbasic (http://www.realbasic.com).

MrToast

[Don't panic]

Ah, I believe you need Panther. It's in how Panther creates archives of files. You can select multiple files, right click, and choose "create archive". That's what I (actually Seth (http://www.freaksw.com), who compiled them) did.

Perhaps you may have noticed a "_MACOSX" folder that was created when you unzipped it. This folder contains the resource forks of the files, and is only correctly intrepreted by Panther.

Sorry, I didn't think to mention that.

BTW, the apps were created with REALbasic (http://www.realbasic.com).

MrToast

thanks,
I do have another machine with panther on, i'll check it there ;)

[MrToast]

What an unbelievably tight @rsed promotion! I think I'd celebrate $100m of revenue a damned sight more generously than a handful of iPods and um er
a laptop.
Is Apple getting too greedy for it's own good?

A lot of people complained about this when the iTMS first was launched. I think that Apple announced that they only make about $0.20 off each song.

The whole point of the iTMS is to sell iPods. As a side note, it's worth noting that the creator code for iTunes is "hook". :eek:

MrToast

[paulypants]

What an unbelievably tight @rsed promotion! I think I'd celebrate $100m of revenue a damned sight more generously than a handful of iPods and um er
a laptop.
Is Apple getting too greedy for it's own good?

OMG you can't be serious...friggin whiners everywhere!

[paulypants]

To have a "free" chance you need:

74 cents (for two stamps)
Two envelopes
and time.

And for all that, you get no songs.

Or use a gift card you received from someone else,
thus you haven't spent anything when you download
a song and a chance to win...

[OhEsTen]

[nuclearwinter]

Suck on that Dell! Looks like the DJ rebate for old iPod deal has met its match!

[Dom Martin]

Do remember that it's $100m in "revenue", not profit. They are giving away $32,800 dollars in prizes. That's quite a significant chunk of profits, if you ask me.

I don't know the percentage they take for each song is but believe me it's a hefty amount. I understand that free is free and free is good, but my point is that what they're putting into this promotion by way of prizes is the minutest fraction of what they get out of our collective pockets for buying the songs in the first place. Which seem to be a bit mean.
Mind you, all you lot seem to be chomping at the bit so from their point of view it's a massive hit. I love Apple but I have one thing to say to anyone who changes their buying habbits because of this promotion and that is, with the greatest respect: Good luck suckers!

[nagromme]

I don't know the percentage they take for each song is but believe me it's a hefty amount. ... my point is that what they're putting into this promotion by way of prizes is the minutest fraction of what they get out of our collective pockets for buying the songs in the first place. Which seem to be a bit mean.

Not true:


A lot of people complained about this when the iTMS first was launched. I think that Apple announced that they only make about $0.20 off each song.

Agreed--and that's just Apple's cut of the .99--Apple's EXPENSES come out of that. Credit card charges, employees, servers, bandwidth. So in fact Apple lost money on every sale at first, and now makes only a very SLIGHT profit. Much less than the 20-cents-before-expenses. (And likely a LOSS when you pay less than .99--such as buying an album--because Apple's operating expenses per song don't go down just because the price does.) iTunes is not a profit center in and of itself--and if you think that Apple's lying, keep in mind the laws they'd break for lying about that, and keep in mind that no other music store is making money from downloads either.

This promotion is good business with long-term mindshare benefits, but it's directly COSTING Apple money to give all that away. Hardly greed or some kind of scam.

Prize drawings with purchases are a VERY commonplace form of marketing--only most of them are with purchases that really ARE nicely profitable. So calling Apple "mean" is hard for me to understand. :D

[jessefoxperry]

...

BTW, the apps were created with REALbasic (http://www.realbasic.com).

MrToast

awesome. im really interested in how you did this. mind sharing the code? :) if you do send me an email

jesselperry@gmail.com

thanks! :cool:

[michaelrjohnson]

What an unbelievably tight @rsed promotion! I think I'd celebrate $100m of revenue a damned sight more generously than a handful of iPods and um er
a laptop.
Is Apple getting too greedy for it's own good?

I wasn't going to jump on this "Burn"wagon, but I just had to.

Yes, they have sold almost 100,000,000 songs, but that doesn't translate into $100,000,000. For example, an album with 15 songs, may still cost $9.99. That's only $10 for 15 songs.

Now, on top of that, Apple doesnt' keep this money! Are you serious? This is the whole concept, Apple, the Music Labels and the Artists get paid too... all out of the same $.99. Apple doesn't make very much money on iTMS at all, in fact, the standard rate for the Labels is $.70/song (Linked Article (http://news.com.com/2009-1027_3-1009538.html)) leaving a $.29 window for Apple to squeeze operating costs and profit into. Accoriding to Steve Jobs, iTMS is a Loss/Break-Even venture in terms of song sales. (Linked Articles (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/07/your_99c_belong/))

So you see, Apple is being generous, not greedy.

Edit: Several posts with similar info.

[FuzzyBallz]

Can you even login to iTunes store after 95 million?

I doubt anybody's gonna win though. They'll release a list of the winners, but they'll probably be Apple employees or friends of Steve. There's no way people will know which number they bought, the tracks don't even come w/ a number.

[gwangung]

[QUOTE=Dom Martin]I don't know the percentage they take for each song is but believe me it's a hefty amount. [QUOTE]

I certainly don't believe you because you're dead wrong. Published reports range from 20 to 30 cents. Out of that come expenses and other such things.

You need to retake Econ 101, I think.

[Freg3000]

Can you even login to iTunes store after 95 million?

I doubt anybody's gonna win though. They'll release a list of the winners, but they'll probably be Apple employees or friends of Steve. There's no way people will know which number they bought, the tracks don't even come w/ a number.

Right......just because you don't know your song didn't download as number 94,689,051 didn't mean it didn't. I am sure Apple has data on every single song ever purchased from the store. And since you need to have a valid Apple ID or AOL account to use the store, your billing/shipping address, e-mail, and phone number are already available for Apple to contact you.

[rDLr]

the page on apple.com says "special 20 gig iPods"... are they special because they are free?

I bet they will have a special engraving on the back.

[michaelrjohnson]

Can you even login to iTunes store after 95 million?

I doubt anybody's gonna win though. They'll release a list of the winners, but they'll probably be Apple employees or friends of Steve. There's no way people will know which number they bought, the tracks don't even come w/ a number.

That's absurd. First of all, Apple employees get discounts on hardware and software, why would they have to win this just to get computers/ipods? Additionally, "friends of Steve"? Are you kidding? He's one of the highest paid CEO's in the country. But let's put all that aside.

I'm almost positive that Apple employees will not be allowed to win any prizes. If you look at almost any promotion, it will exclude employees and family members of employees from winning.

[SilentPanda]

A few things:

I haven't read much on the Page 2 rumors of the black iPods but could that be what these special iPods are?

I would anticipate that the free songs would count as a purchase. Any time I buy a free song I still get an invoice. Not sure but... could be. Some of the text on the site says the Xth downloaded song and some of the text says the Xth song purchased.

Buying an album with 99 songs on it for $9.99 would probably increase your bang for your buck... Although the songs probably won't be any good.

Typically employees of the prize giving company are *not* eligible for the prize. So no worries there most likely.

I'm sure we'll all be scouring the official rules when they get posted... :)

Anyhow... just some thoughts... no facts of course.

[bigdog]

I got bored here at work and made a banner for the countdown. It's live updating; should match Apple's site when you load it.

http://www.spinningplates.net/jason/itunes.php

image source is:
http://www.spinningplates.net/jason/itunes.php

I would appreciate a nod/link to my site if you use it.
http://www.spinningplates.net/jason/
However, it's not necessary.

[ruud]

at the current rate (http://itunescounter.ruud.org/) at which songs are sold, it will still be about 11 hours before the first ipod is given away. after that, if the songs are sold at the same rate, they will be given away once every few hours.

[rDLr]

I personally find this to be the best way anyhow... It helps me curb my iTMS spending (which isn't a whole lot) by forcing me to go make a special trip to a store that carries the cards. That way, I'll use the Gift Card $ instead of directly from my account.

But you waste a dollar in gas money for your trip to the store.

[MrToast]

I got bored here at work and made a banner for the countdown. It's live updating; should match Apple's site when you load it.

http://www.spinningplates.net/jason/itunes.php

image source is:
http://www.spinningplates.net/jason/itunes.php

I would appreciate a nod/link to my site if you use it.
http://www.spinningplates.net/jason/
However, it's not necessary.

Very very cool! :D

MrToast

[SilentPanda]

I will give a GMail invite to whomever buys the 100 millionth song and gives me the prize... ;)

[iPC]

What do I do? what do I do? to buy songs all the time until I reach the person 100 million? :confused:
your sig should be...

<img>http://www.vjrei.com/2.1/Rei21.jpg</img>

replace the <> with [] and you are all set. ;)

[jsw]

Of course, you realize that what we need now is something that takes the current value and current rate of change into account to predict the optimum time to buy a song.

Better it be someone on this list that some random punk, right? :)

Edit: at current rate, you've got about a 0.1 second window to buy (I'm guessing the rate will pick up; right now, you've got a little more than a tenth of a second). Given that, and the uncertainly as to how quickly Apple updates their numbers, the best you can probably hope for is a five-minute window in which to buy, giving you a 1-in-3000 shot. Even if you could narrow it down to a minute - which assumes some knowledge of Apple's delay in updating the count - your odds are still 600-1 against.

But hey, it's fun to watch!

[bigdog]

iTMS Song Counter graph!


I don't feel like finding the author of that graph because I do have work to do, but the person needs to modify his/her code for the songs-per-second graph. Apple delays numbers on the hour, causing this graph to bottom out then spike. Difference from X:55 to Y:05 should be divided by two and graphed accordingly for a more professional look.

[rDLr]

I noticed that the Apple home page autorefreshes now.

[rDLr]

Hi Everyone!

I have created a VERY simple application that will count how many songs have been downloaded from the iTMS. It will not keep track of past counts. This is just to save you from refreshing Apple.com (http://www.apple.com) every 3 minutes. :D

Also, this doesn't work if you're behind serious firewalls.

Preliminary tests show that the number changes every 2 or 3 minutes, which means that the "Update" button won't be too useful. ;)

Get it here: (Windows and Mac OS X in the same archive)
http://mrtoast.spymac.net/iTMS.zip

Thanks to Seth Willits for compiling. Visit his site! http://www.freaksw.com Buy his software! :cool:

Enjoy! (Feel free to mirror the archive)

MrToast

Awesome little app.

So is there a way to put the counter up in the menu bar?
Is there someone out there that could help MrToast if this can't be done with this app?

Where is the custom icon? (5 minutes to write app....3 hours to design cool icon) :) just kidding...

Thanks!!!!

[nagromme]

Very cool, bigdog. The Apple counter updates every few minutes and your banner follows along :)

http://www.spinningplates.net/jason/itunes.php
I would appreciate a nod/link to my site if you use it.
http://www.spinningplates.net/jason/

(And I notice the Apple.com album covers are random every time--not even the same per background color--whether the number's new or not.)

I just hope Apple added extra Xserves for the cyclical peaks they will see due to that visible counter :D

[ruud]

I don't feel like finding the author of that graph because I do have work to do, but the person needs to modify his/her code for the songs-per-second graph. Apple delays numbers on the hour, causing this graph to bottom out then spike. Difference from X:55 to Y:05 should be divided by two and graphed accordingly for a more professional look.

i noticed that only after i coded it up. i'll see what i can do :)

edit: never mind.

[BevvyB]

If you guys want to know the kind of strategy required to make something like iTunes work, check out eBay.

It takes years and years to dominate, then years to consolidate, and then more to break even. However, there is now only eBay. So in the scheme of things, 5-10 years is nothing, considering you're gambling on being the main dominant force in an entire industry.

The faster Apple can make money on iTunes the better.

[MCCFR]

ok, so who's going to keep track and give us daily, weekly and trends charts?
how about a widget itunes ticker? and while you're at it, can you make me one for folding@home (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=21908)?

I have a spreadsheet with all the major announcements and proclaimations, and I'm keeping an eye on the counter every two hours or so.

Between 14:45 BST and 21:15, Apple sold 174,292 songs at an average of 446.9 downloads/minute. The busiest spell seems to have been a 15 minute period around 16:00 BST, when they were moving 627 tracks/minute. However, it is pretty constantly between 440 and 470 tracks/minute which is hell of a pace - equivalent to having around 20 stores with four checkouts each running constantly.

[MrToast]

Awesome little app.

So is there a way to put the counter up in the menu bar?
Is there someone out there that could help MrToast if this can't be done with this app?

Where is the custom icon? (5 minutes to write app....3 hours to design cool icon) :) just kidding...

Thanks!!!!

Hahahahahaha....

Well, I don't know of a way for REALbasic to create menu extras, unless somebody has some sick mad nasty plugin that I don't know about.

And I did all this from my computer at work, where I have a demo license of REALbasic and not much else (no graphics programs except MS Paint :eek: ). That's why I had Seth (http://www.freaksw.com) (visit! buy!) compile them for me.

When I get home from work I'll spiffy it up. Maybe make it graph stuff out and do projections and whatnot.

Thanks!

MrToast

[frem001]

Suck on that Dell! Looks like the DJ rebate for old iPod deal has met its match!

Dell lost that when a speck of dust fell in my ipod yesterday :D

[gwangung]

If you guys want to know the kind of strategy required to make something like iTunes work, check out eBay.

Or Amazon....

It takes years and years to dominate, then years to consolidate, and then more to break even. However, there is now only eBay. So in the scheme of things, 5-10 years is nothing, considering you're gambling on being the main dominant force in an entire industry.

The faster Apple can make money on iTunes the better.


Think folks should pay attention to this. There's a certain amount of proprietariness, particularly in the early years, as the market decides what matters to it. That's why the push to include other formats and players is far too premature; don't think it makes business right now.

[DMann]

the song count doesn't seem to dynamically update, unless there's several hours between each song purchase. hehe. Apple would be smart to put a dynamically updated counter on there, or atleast once-per-hour update...because once it gets real close, they'll see a HUGE explosion of song purchases for people trying to win the iPod.

Perhaps Apple figures that without the counter, a more continuous
stream will pour in. You are right, however, if there were a counter,
the sales would surge toward the 100,000 marks.

[frankly]

while you programming gurus are at it, can you give me a hand picking some numbers for this?
http://www.galottery.com/

it's up to $290M, so if you give me the correct numbers, i'll be more than happy to split it. ;)

and if i win the lottery, i'll buy the remaining songs to get to 100M on iTMS, just so i can have my smiling, obscenely rich mug on apple.com and so i can make my celebrity playlist (which would have to be $ongs themed w/ money).

Don't you think if we could write a program to pick lottery numbers we would have done it already? http://forums.macrumors.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Later, Frank

[frankly]

Looks like the avg. rate is around 4,000+- songs every 5 mins.

The lowest being around 3,000 songs every 5 mins.

The highest being around 5,000 songs every 5 mins.

Just bought 2 songs.

94,628,050 so far.

You should check your math. The average since the announcement is a little over 2000 songs per 5 minutes.

Frank

[michaelrjohnson]

Perhaps Apple figures that without the counter, a more continuous
stream will pour in. You are right, however, if there were a counter,
the sales would surge toward the 100,000 marks.

...and that would be a bad thing... how?

Apple is going to give the prizes away no matter how fast they sell (relativley). So if there's a big push, it's just closer to the next mark, and more $$ taken in.

[rDLr]

I've already found 3 albums I want to buy just from clicking on the album cover adds on the Apple homepage! The addidction.....must.....stop.....

Is there ITMS Anonymous yet?

[ITR 81]

You should check your math. The average since the announcement is a little over 2000 songs per 5 minutes.

Frank

How?

Using the now available http://itunescounter.ruud.org/ graph.

We can see the high point to be around 4,800 per 5 mins
We can also see the low point around 2,100 per 5 mins
4800 + 2100 = 6900
6900/2 = 3,450 per 5 mins

[DMann]

I wonder if anyone will take a chance and just buy songs like crazy, say 1000 of them, in hopes of getting the $14,000 prize. If only you could add a bunch of songs to a shopping cart then buy them all at once.

Internet time/accuracy is way to variable to take
a chance like that. Sure, you'll have 1,000 songs,
but chances are increased slightly, at the most.
Even bidding on e-bay with a fraction of competition
proves to be a challenge.

[michaelrjohnson]

I dont' think they'res any feasible way to "plan" a winning... I think, despite how hard anyone tries, its as much of a crap-shoot as anything.

[frankly]

How?

Using the now available http://itunescounter.ruud.org/ graph.

We can see the high point to be around 4,800 per 5 mins
We can also see the low point around 2,100 per 5 mins
4800 + 2100 = 6900
6900/2 = 3,450 per 5 mins

Very simple, don't depend on that graph since it isn't accurate. I got my numbers directly from Apple's website.

11:45am.....94,561,821 sold
5:45pm......94,730,827 sold

6 hours passed, 169,006 sold
469 per minute
2347 per 5 minutes

Check for yourself. Also, look at what everyone in this forum besides the graph guy has been calculating as well.

Later, Frank

[rhix]

Well, before I finished reading the whole thread, I got the idea of writing a perl script that would fetch the stats as they come up. It's quite a dirty script, so I won't bother you with the sources (if someone really wants them, you can email me). Every 30 seconds it checks the new total, and logs it to a file. The file can be found at:

http://rick.particleproductions.ca/itmspromo.dat

Just refresh when you want new data. It's not in CSV or anything fancy, but writing a script to convert it would be a sinch. Thought some of you may like having the data, hopefully it's of some use.

[whooleytoo]

Where's Automator when you need it??? ;)

[Gooberdude]

I have been tracking since 10:30 PST
Average since this 1st post @ 9:04 EST is 515 per minute.
With Highs of 800 +

Currently Apple has sold 94,735,227
leaving only 264,773 till 95,000,000
approximatly 8.5 hours to go.

11P.M. PST


WOO HOO Prizes tomarrow maybe
Gooberdude

[frankly]

I have been tracking since 10:30 PST
Average since this 1st post @ 9:04 EST is 515 per minute.
With Highs of 800 +

Currently Apple has sold 94,735,227
leaving only 264,773 till 95,000,000
approximatly 8.5 hours to go.

11P.M. PST


WOO HOO Prizes tomarrow maybe
Gooberdude

Man, our school system is in bad shape.

9:04am 94,496,906
6:10pm 94,743,056
Total sold: 246,150
Total minutes: 546
Songs per minute: 450.82
Per 5 minutes: 2254

Frank

[backspinner]

Just another (very basic) live graph:
http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl

[DMann]

Hahahahahaha....

Well, I don't know of a way for REALbasic to create menu extras, unless somebody has some sick mad nasty plugin that I don't know about.

And I did all this from my computer at work, where I have a demo license of REALbasic and not much else (no graphics programs except MS Paint :eek: ). That's why I had Seth (http://www.freaksw.com) (visit! buy!) compile them for me.

When I get home from work I'll spiffy it up. Maybe make it graph stuff out and do projections and whatnot.

Thanks!

MrToast


Thank you, again!!

[DMann]

Man, our school system is in bad shape.

9:04am 94,496,906
6:10pm 94,743,056
Total sold: 246,150
Total minutes: 546
Songs per minute: 450.82
Per 5 minutes: 2254

Frank

Sometimes, takes a while for purchases
to register..... :cool:

[ruud]

Very simple, don't depend on that graph since it isn't accurate. I got my numbers directly from Apple's website.

11:45am.....94,561,821 sold
5:45pm......94,730,827 sold

6 hours passed, 169,006 sold
469 per minute
2347 per 5 minutes

Check for yourself. Also, look at what everyone in this forum besides the graph guy has been calculating as well.

Later, Frank

your number of 2347 per 5 minutes agrees with what my graph shows (about 8 per second).

the problem with the graph is the fact that apple doesn't update the numbers on the whole-hour mark, which causes a zero rate followed by a spike. but on average, the rate is correct and in agreement with your numbers.

[backspinner]

oh by the way, on http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl you can also find the raw data, in case you do want to do some crunching...

[m.r.m.]

Umm.. pretty much every student with a U.S. mailing address if the numbers the credit card companies tout (and then complain about re: defaulting) are to be believed.

not in germany. i pay all my bills via online bank transfer. i don't have a steady income. tough luck trying to get a credit card. we have the standard bank card (ec-card) which works in many european countries, but not in itunes music store.

[Dave00]

Isn't it odd to prominently advertise a promotion and not post the official rules at the same time, especially considering how close they are to 95 million?

In my opinion, if "no purchase" is indeed necessary, people downloading a free tune should be eligible to win. Sending an entry in by "snail mail" doesn't seem to make sense, as others have pointed out.

They are treading on rather thin legal ice if a winner is named before official rules are posted and a method for winning without buying is announced.

The entry-by-mail method makes sense in that it is the method by which almost every contest of this kind allows non-purchasers to play. Using a free download as a way to enter without paying would virtually guarantee a non-paying winner. It also would exclude alot of people (anyone who can't setup iTunes or who doesn't want to give their credit card number to apple, for instance) which again is a little shakey legally.

--D

[MrToast]

iTMS Counter 2 will be coming shortly! (Give me a couple more hours of off time :D)

New features:
Mini floater
Graphing
Panther only

MrToast

[winmacguy]

I would be severely depressed if the 100,000,000th song winner was a PC user....or worse, a windows activist....

Actually I was thinking that would be highly likely considering that 75% of people purchasing iPods are PC owners. I think it would also be good for a PC owner to win a PB and "really experience OSX"

[johnpaul191]

Here's my guess:

The "special" 20 gb ipds are the next generation ipods. My guess is that once they reach the 100 million mark they will announce new storage capacities (20,40,60) and maybe some new mini ipod storage capacities, too.


well we know they iPod Mini drive maker has a 6 gig version that should be available in quantity in the next few months (for get when... late summer or early fall?). remember; they mentioned Apple had put in an order.....

somewhere else people were scoping what the drives were doing that end up in the full sized ipods. unless Apple has enough buying power to hold back their press releases till Apple promotes a new iPod. then again eventually Apple may use another drive for either device too.

[frankly]

your number of 2347 per 5 minutes agrees with what my graph shows (about 8 per second).

the problem with the graph is the fact that apple doesn't update the numbers on the whole-hour mark, which causes a zero rate followed by a spike. but on average, the rate is correct and in agreement with your numbers.

My apologies to you. I didn't check your entire chart. That is not how it was being interpreted by the person that I was replying to in my previous message. They interpreted it as follows:

We can see the high point to be around 4,800 per 5 mins
We can also see the low point around 2,100 per 5 mins
4800 + 2100 = 6900
6900/2 = 3,450 per 5 mins

This person doesn't understand the difference between a median value and an average. They took the average of the highest value and the lowest value which gave them the median value. They chose to ignore the rest of the values in their calculation. That is why my later message in reply to another person said that there were problems with our school system.

Later, Frank

[gregdig]

iTMS Counter 2 will be coming shortly! (Give me a couple more hours of off time :D)

Any way you could make it display commas for people like me who aren't that good with 8-digit numbers?

[thex]

just another iTunes song counter except this is a konfabulator widget

[wdlove]

I think that this is a very worthwhile contest. Someone will win.

[Lancetx]

Any way you could make it display commas for people like me who aren't that good with 8-digit numbers?

Amen to that, when my eyes are straining all of those numbers just run together, so commas would help immensely! :p

[CyberB0b]

Amen to that, when my eyes are straining all of those numbers just run together, so commas would help immensely! :p

If you really want to go blind check out my own monster page of numbers. The right column gives a nice count down (hours:minutes:seconds) until the next winner.

Three and a half hours or so before I can buy a song. :)

http://ym.muda.org/itunes/

[zim]

I wonder if you tilt your screen at a certain angle that will increase the chances of winning. :D

Did anyone else notice that there are 2 free songs to download? Click on the free song, click on the album, go to favorite iMixes and click the free songs iMix. At the bottom of the list is 2 free songs.

There are two free downloads every week, I just recently learned about this, here on macrumors. The second song is called a Free Discovery Download. You will find them by searching the genres and looking at the set of three top images, the dynamic ones. the middle one is usually where the Discovery Download is found.

[alandail]

If you really want to go blind check out my own monster page of numbers. The right column gives a nice count down (hours:minutes:seconds) until the next winner.

Three and a half hours or so before I can buy a song. :)

http://ym.muda.org/kurt/apple/

Now that's the kind of overkill I would have done ;)

[BlueDjinn]

Using MacRumors' 9:04 am Thursday number of 94,496,906 songs, the store has already gone from:

337 songs per minute pre-promotion (2.7 million/week U.S. + 700,000/week Europe = 3.4 million per week / 10,080 minutes per week = appx. 337 songs per minute), to:

420 songs per minute at around 1:00pm Thursday, to:

475 songs per minute at 11:50pm.

If this rate is sustained, there will be 1 winner every 210 minutes (about 3 1/2 hours), which would mean the whole thing will be over in about 7.4 days, or just before noon on July 8th.

It is worth noting that 475/minute equals 4.7 million songs per week.

This figure will no doubt be averaged down somewhat overnight, BUT it will almost certainly be MORE than made up for by spiking sales the moment we cross the 95 million mark--which should be roughly 3 hours from now, or around 3am!

Setting aside the prizes themselves, this is a BRILLIANT marketing move on Apple's part--if the sales spike high enough, they could conceivably sell 6 million songs this week! If the 10% net profit figure being thrown around is correct (after 65% to the labels and 25% for operational costs), the extra 2 1/2 million song spike due to this promo would still net them an extra $250,000 in additional revenue beyond the norm--minus the $30,000 or so in prize giveaways (which is the retail value, NOT the actual cost to Apple), and they end up pocketing an extra $220,000 AND gaining a TON of kick-ass publicity!

[AstroPlain]

just calculated 475 songs/minnute - so these numbers seem fairly accurate. But I wonder how uniform sales are going to be across 24 hrs. We should do a longer comparison and check 24hr data. ;-)

Your wish is granted. I was thinking the same thing, so I started logging it with a cron job, some PHP, and MySQL. http://www.itunesdaily.com/countdown/

[ITR 81]

My apologies to you. I didn't check your entire chart. That is not how it was being interpreted by the person that I was replying to in my previous message. They interpreted it as follows:



This person doesn't understand the difference between a median value and an average. They took the average of the highest value and the lowest value which gave them the median value. They chose to ignore the rest of the values in their calculation. That is why my later message in reply to another person said that there were problems with our school system.

Later, Frank




Median, mode and mean could all mean "average" depending on how you interpret it.
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/dictionary/a.html#average

Now what is the simple definition of mean?
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/dictionary/m.html#mean
So that means I can take two #'s and add them together then divide them by 2 and come out with a mean(avg). Sound familar?

Now what is the simple definition of median?
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/dictionary/m.html#median
So this means I would have to list all of the #'s out. Which I didn't do.
If the list was odd this would mean the middle # would equal the median. Which I didn't do.
If the list was even then I would have to take the mean of the two middle #'s. Which I also didn't do.

Just because I say High and Low # you should never assume I was giving you a median.

Now if I would've said this is a "true" avg. or "total avg." then you would've been right. But I didn't.

[mighty quinn]

Quick question. I think I checked the thread thoroughly, but I might have missed it. Is the first ipod given at 95 million or 95.1? The apple page seems to sound like it is at 95.1 as it says that they begin counting down at 95 and then start giving them out every 100,000. Anybody know?

[frankly]

Median, mode and mean could all mean "average" depending on how you interpret it.
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/dictionary/a.html#average

Now what is the simple definition of mean?
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/dictionary/m.html#mean
So that means I can take two #'s and add them together then divide them by 2 and come out with a mean(avg). Sound familar?

Now what is the simple definition of median?
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/dictionary/m.html#median
So this means I would have to list all of the #'s out. Which I didn't do.
If the list was odd this would mean the middle # would equal the median. Which I didn't do.
If the list was even then I would have to take the mean of the two middle #'s. Which I also didn't do.

Just because I say High and Low # you should never assume I was giving you a median.

Now if I would've said this is a "true" avg. or "total avg." then you would've been right. But I didn't.

You were wrong and this was proved out when I showed you the math that was used to calculate the actual average. This was the same average that everyone except you has come up with in this forum.

You CAN NOT find the average of the sales over many hours by picking the highest number of sales in one five minute period and the lowest number of sales in one five minute period and averaging those. That is just wrong. What if 90% of the five minute periods were equal to the lowest number? What if the high or low period was an anomaly? Wouldn't this throw your "average" completely out of whack?[/math lesson]

If you still can't see why you were wrong then you need to put down the dictionary and pick up a math book. I'm being completely serious.

The worst part is that you must have read the graph wrong to begin with. The author of the graph has already come in and said that according to the numbers on his graph he matched the average that I calculated. This could not have been the case if the minimum was really 3000 as you said. I think you need to go back to the drawing board. Like I said the first time: you should check your math.

Frank

[morkintosh]

I think this is an excellent promotion. And yes, people are no doubt going to try and find ways to predict when the important songs will be downloaded, and there may be nuts out there who try downloading 1000 songs, but in the end, this is probably exactly what Apple wants!

Sweet sweet chaos theory ... with all the people who are now downloading music any kind of mathematical model people come up with will result in the same fact = it's practically random!

[autrefois]

Quick question. I think I checked the thread thoroughly, but I might have missed it. Is the first ipod given at 95 million or 95.1? The apple page seems to sound like it is at 95.1 as it says that they begin counting down at 95 and then start giving them out every 100,000. Anybody know?

From what I understand and from what others have said, it starts at 95,100,000.

The excitement with 95 million is just that that's when the chase will begin! :)

[aafuss1]

Currently (at 3:10 pm)-94,948,008 songs have been sold. We're getting very close to the 95 million mark soon-I bet in a couple of days the 100 million mark wil be reached.

[elliotay]

I was wondering the same thing about whether it started at 95 million or 95.1 million. Then I read the apple page and I think I figured it out. It says, "giving away 50 special 20GB iPods". Then the 100 millionth song purchaser receives the powerbook, a 40 gig ipod, and 10,000 song gift certificate. So if it starts at 95.1 million, then the 100 millionth song purchaser gets a 20 and 40 gig iPod. Which doesn't seem right. So, it seems like it starts at 95 million to me.

Edit: Well, after reading over apple's official rules, it says the first ipod will be given away at the 95.1 millionth download. That doesn't make any sense to me if they're giving away 50 20GB iPods then the grand prize winner gets two ipods. Does this seem wrong to anyone else?

[amols]

From what I understand and from what others have said, it starts at 95,100,000.

The excitement with 95 million is just that that's when the chase will begin! :)

No..It should start at 95M mark. So the 50th iPod will be at 99,900,000 and 100M winner (SOB) will get the grand prize.

[axion]

The Official Rules are now online. http://www.apple.com/itunes/100million/#rules

[BlueDjinn]

"How You Win. Winners will be determined by the order of the Entries received. One 20GB iPod will be awarded for each Entry sent immediately following the 99,999th song downloaded, until iTunes reaches its 100 millionth Entry. (One 20GB iPod will be given away for the 95,100,000th Entry, 95,200,000th Entry,....99,900,000th Entry). For the 100 millionth Entry, the winner will receive the grand prize: a 40GB iPod, a 17 inch PowerBook computer, and a gift certificate redeemable for 10,000 songs from iTunes (approximate total retail value based on single track pricing: US $13,198). In the event that more than one entrant would be a winner based on the simultaneous timing of entries, one entrant will be randomly selected from those entrants as the winner. Each entrant’s chances of winning are dependent upon the number of Entries received and the timing of Entries. Each entrant is only eligible to win only one 20GB iPod and/or the grand prize."

OK, so that answers three questions:

1. The first iPod is given away at 95,100,000.
2. The 50th iPod, along with the PowerBook & gift certificate, is given away at 100,000,000.

3. Since, at 470 songs per minute, that's almost 8 songs being sold every second, they have to do a random drawing for the 8 or more people who will technically have bought the winning songs at the exact same moment. I wonder how many simultaneous download streams the iTMS can handle??

[Freg3000]

1. The first iPod is given away at 95,100,000.

Yep, although it makes little sense, it is true.

[BlueDjinn]

Yep, although it makes little sense, it is true.

Why does this make little sense? Makes perfect sense to me:

951 = 1
952 = 2
953 = 3
(etc...)
998 = 48
999 = 49
1,000 = 50

Where's the confusion?

[jbembe]

Apparently, Tell a Friend emails count. So, by the time someone wins the big prize, apple really will have actually only sold 95,000,023 because all the entries will be free emails sent out in the first few minutes after the clicker hits 95 mil. :D

[elliotay]

The confusion is that Apple said they were giving away 50 special 20GB iPods. The grand prize winner is stated to get the 17" powerbook, 10,000 itunes gift certificate, and a 40GB ipod. The confusion lies with the fact that the grand prize winner gets a 20GB ipod AND a 40GB ipod according to the official rules.

[mighty quinn]

The confusion is that Apple said they were giving away 50 special 20GB iPods. The grand prize winner is stated to get the 17" powerbook, 10,000 itunes gift certificate, and a 40GB ipod. The confusion lies with the fact that the grand prize winner gets a 20GB ipod AND a 40GB ipod according to the official rules.



from the official rules:
"The 100 Millionth Download Promotion (the “Promotion”) is a sweepstakes promotion in which entrants downloading songs through the iTunes Music Store (“iTunes”) will be eligible to win one of forty-nine 20GB iPods (approximate retail value : US $399) or the grand prize of a 40GB iPod, a 17 inch PowerBook computer"

[BlueDjinn]

The confusion is that Apple said they were giving away 50 special 20GB iPods. The grand prize winner is stated to get the 17" powerbook, 10,000 itunes gift certificate, and a 40GB ipod. The confusion lies with the fact that the grand prize winner gets a 20GB ipod AND a 40GB ipod according to the official rules.

Nope, it's actually 49 20GB iPods and 1 40GB (+PBook & gift certificate):

From the official rules:

"...one of forty-nine 20GB iPods (approximate retail value : US $399) or the grand prize of a 40GB iPod, a 17 inch PowerBook computer, and a gift certificate redeemable for 10,000 songs from iTunes..."

[elliotay]

mighty quinn: Thanks for the info. I didn't see that part in the official rules. Well it seems like apple is contradicting themselves then because at the top of the page it definitely states: "Apple will begin the countdown to 100 million songs by giving away 50 special 20GB iPods". Weird.

[mighty quinn]

The tell a friend option is confusing.

Does it mean that you enter your own email when you "tell-a friend"? or does it mean that you enter somebody else's email and then you are entered for the prize.

Also, how do email submissions count toward the song total. Does a tell-a friend email count as a song purchase in the countdown?

I am pretty tired, but I'm not getting this tell-a friend option.

edit: " One 20GB iPod will be awarded for each Entry sent immediately following the 99,999th song downloaded, until iTunes reaches its 100 millionth Entry.".... maybe this means that the email doesn't count toward a song in the countdown, so ...99,999 songs have to be sold before an email entry will let you win. Then I guess buying a bunch of songs at once (like an album) would have an advantage over the email submission. I still have no idea though.. just a guess.

[Freg3000]

Why does this make little sense? Makes perfect sense to me:

951 = 1
952 = 2
953 = 3
(etc...)
998 = 48
999 = 49
1,000 = 50

Where's the confusion?

As pointed out by elliotay, the initial confusion stemmed from the fact that for most of the day Apple was saying that they'd be giving away 50 20 GB iPods....heck he/she explained it well enough already.

No more confusion. I still think it is rather stupid though. Why such "ugly" numbers? 95.1 million and 49? Why not just go for 95 million and 50? :confused:

Edit: Apple still says 50 20GB iPods on the promotion page (although they have modified the homepage to reflect 50 "iPods" (49 20GBs+ 1 40GB).)

...Apple will begin the countdown to 100 million songs by giving away 50 special 20GB iPods

[savar]

I wonder if it counts your purchase when you click buy, or when each individual song finished downloading?

I would imagine that the counter is linked to payment approval. So you get counted a little after you click "Buy" and just before it begins to download.

What I am wondering about is how the "No Purchase Necessary" will work. It says:

a free alternative means of sending an email to Apple at itunes100@apple.com via the iTunes “Tell a Friend” feature (a song download or Tell a Friend email will be deemed an “Entry(ies”). The “Tell a Friend” feature can be easily accessed at iTunes by selecting a song, and clicking the “Tell a Friend” link that is displayed for that song. One Entry will be automatically submitted for each song downloaded or Tell a Friend email sent.

So does the counter on Apple.com include these free entries or not? I would assume no since they are counting sales to boast to the world their success. So are there really two counters? If so, then the real one is hidden, and 100,000,000 will be reached while the counter on Apple.com still reads 99,782,383 or something. If there is only one counter, then I suppose this means that if you submit a free entry right after the 999,999,999th song download, then you win.

The prize package is worth spending a few minutes thinking about this.

[Makosuke]

edit: " One 20GB iPod will be awarded for each Entry sent immediately following the 99,999th song downloaded, until iTunes reaches its 100 millionth Entry.".... maybe this means that the email doesn't count toward a song in the countdown, so ...99,999 songs have to be sold before an email entry will let you win. Then I guess buying a bunch of songs at once (like an album) would have an advantage over the email submission. I still have no idea though.. just a guess.
That is exactly correct. After each 99,999 songs have been sold (starting at 95,099,999 songs), the first "entry" received will win the iPod. An entry can be either a song purchased, or an email sent to "...itunes100@apple.com via the iTunes "Tell a Friend" feature".

So, if somebody buys a song right after number 99,999, then that person wins. If Apple gets a (non-automated) e-mail to the address above via the Tell a Friend feature before anybody buys a song, then whoever sent that e-mail wins. If both happen at the same time, then they pick randomly.

The e-mails clearly do NOT count against the total--the only time they'll make a difference is if Apple gets one after a 99,999 purchase and before a 100,000 purchase, in which case that person wins an iPod but still doesn't advance the count.

That would mean that people buying albums are far more likely to win, since their purchase would drive the count directly from, say, 99,995 to 100,008, with no room for an e-mail to squeeze in between.

Personally, I'd say the e-mail thing is kinda cheesy, and it seems like there should have been some way to wrangle things into a less clock-watching "no purchase necessary" clause, but I suppose they didn't have a lot of choice under US law.

[amols]

Alright...here we go. Let the countdown begin.

http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15048&stc=1

[Bob Knob]

95,002,244

[dantec]

Seems to me like they hit a brick wall... Now the rate at which they are selling songs seems to have fallen...

Stupid me, I bought 2 songs right before the 50 mill mark ! I should have caught up with the reading on this thread before doing so !! :mad:

Oh well... Now we are going to all wait for 95,099,999 !

edit : Has anyone seen the iPod + iTunes video at http://www.apple.com/itunes/video/ which was shown at the London music event & WWDC ?

Whats the music from the video ? Thats a song to buy...

edit 2 : The song is 'Walkie Talkie man' from Steriogram. Here is the link to the album.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=7774133

[grouse]

Okay, updating my predictions from yesterday,,,

I reckoned 7:30am for the 95mill mark, and that turned out to be about 2 hours early. Of course since we haven't had a full days stats yet, we can't work out what are the peaks and troughs of a normal Thursday/Friday in summer!

We are now at the slowest rate so far, not too surprising given that most of you transatlantic folk should be in bed, and in the UK the ipod itunes media types aren't known as early risers. But are we beginning to see a trend around the magic multiple of 100,000 mark. A lot of people won't have been reading these boards and might have guessed that one was going at the 95mil mark. And the rate did increase (see http://ym.muda.org/kurt/apple/) massively at that time (up from 140 per min average to 470 per min).

So questions are:

Is 5:00EST generally the quiestest selling time?

How slow are the sales going to get when we get near to the BIG prize, (there'll be an "after you" mentality surely)?

And how widely is this being promoted? I notice it's on the music store front page now, but will they email folk about it, along with the new music tuesday's promo? (assuming the competition runs that long, it might well finish before then)

And what is the album on iTunes with the most number of tracks? That could well rise up the charts?

And, by the way, based on the limited stats so far, it looks like the UK, German and French sales were down in the second week.

(PS do you think they'll keep the ticker stats available after the promotion?, or does it give away too much info to "rivals"?)

Also, - possibly interesting stat: in the US you'd have to buy no more than 402 songs to make it worth your while winning the 20GB ipod, in the UK you'd have to buy no more than 378 songs to still be up on the deal (although you'd still own the music, it's not like lottery tickets), and in Germany and France, you'd be able to buy 453 songs and win (you'd be up net .50 cents or so!) before you'd spent the cost of the prize.

Actually, that means, on a iTMS song/ipod cost exchange ladder, the 20GB iPod is best value in the UK and worst in Euroland. Go figure.

x

(of course, I may well have got all this completely arse about face, but if any americans are still reading in the small hours of the morning, it's really gonna play with their sleep-deprived heads!)

rate's just reached it's lowest on record, 109 per min.

[iMeowbot]

In order to be eligible, entrants must be 13 years of age or older, and a legal resident of one of the 50 United States, including Washington, D.C., the United Kingdom, France or Germany
When did those last three join the US, and who are the states we kicked out?

[grouse]

90 songs per min....

15 hours at this rate!@

[Applespider]

And what is the album on iTunes with the most number of tracks? That could well rise up the charts?

Not sure if it's the one with the most tracks but I did notice there's a Scooter (German techno/dance for those unaware) album called 24 karat gold which has 24 tracks and only costs £7.99

[backspinner]

is everyone asleep?
Well, as you can see on
http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl

it does slow down but the last three hours it's quite stable. Must be Europe where it's normal daytime now.

[suneun]

Actually, I think it's done really intelligently.

Any "tell a friend" e-mails sent in are ignored until the 99,999th song has been sold. Right after the 99,999th song has been sold, they check to see what happens next: a purchase or an email. In cases of "simultaneous entry," they do a random picking from those entries. So the e-mails won't be included in the counter, which would have been silly.

An attempt at scripting the e-mail entries will get you kicked out of the entire contest.

Course, I wonder how long it takes the e-mail to get to them. Depends on your own server, but also how long it takes Apple to process that jump in e-mails.

[suneun]

One Entry will be automatically submitted for each song downloaded

Hm. Looks like the best way would be to download an album with really short songs. Doesn't look like they're choosing based on credit card purchase, but with completed downloads.

[backspinner]

people are realy waiting for the gifts: watch the green spike on the 95 million mark on http://itunescount.tijdweb.nl

[m.r.m.]

Not sure if it's the one with the most tracks but I did notice there's a Scooter (German techno/dance for those unaware) album called 24 karat gold which has 24 tracks and only costs £7.99

believe me, winning the powerbook isn't worth buying their album. :D

[Hattig]

Actually, I think it's done really intelligently.
I think it would have been simpler to just pick an iPod winner from the 100,000 songs puchased (95.0m to 95.099999m), one song == 1 entry, and 1 e-mail == 1 entry, max 1 entry per e-mail address per 100k songs.

[fracai]

How To Enter. You will automatically be entered into the Promotion by: 1) downloading a song from iTunes (any Free Download Single of the Week will be deemed an ineligible entry); or 2) a free alternative means of sending an email to Apple at itunes100@apple.com via the iTunes “Tell a Friend” feature (a song download or Tell a Friend email will be deemed an “Entry(ies”). The “Tell a Friend” feature can be easily accessed at iTunes by selecting a song, and clicking the “Tell a Friend” link that is displayed for that song. One Entry will be automatically submitted for each song downloaded or Tell a Friend email sent. The Promotion begins following the downloading of the 95,000,000th iTunes song, and ends with the downloading of the 100 millionth Entry (“End Date”). Only Entries submitted in this time period will be accepted.
focus on the "downloadng of the 100 millionth Entry"

Seems pretty clear to me that tell a friend entries don't count towards the start of the contest, but they absolutely count towards the end of the contest and thus the prizes. Purchasing songs DOES NOT give you an advantage over tell a friend.

I think the only thing Apple has failed to do in this promotion, is get the word out. They should have mentioned something about it at WWDC and started an add campaign a week or two ago. "In the next few weeks iTunes will sell (sell, give away, download, tell a friend...whatever, sell sounds better) it's 100,000,000 song. but that's not all you can get" or something equally as cheesy would have been great to get the word out.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that the friend telling does count towards the count.

[fracai]

(any Free Download Single of the Week will be deemed an ineligible entry);
thought this was pretty interesting too

anyone looking for a real good deal should look at Live from Atlanta, GA - New Years by Widespread Panic

If it's still available it's about 9 discs worth of music for about $20
They're a jam band in the style of Phish with that southern kick. And by that I don't mean country music. ;)

[gekko513]

Hmm, maybe Apple has just provided us with a lesson on "How to Successfully Launch a DoS Attack on Yourself"... ;)
I can't get the images on apple.com to load properly. Maybe Apple actually succeeded in launching a DoS attack on themselves. :D

[grouse]

Now the downloads are hotting up again, and most of you will be watching the clocks ticking....

It's now 2:55pm UK time. Current estimates put it at about 5:15pm. But as we know it'll speed up as prime time starts.

So I'm going to predict 4:07pm

Over to you, and no sneaky back editing

Nearest one to the time, posts to be made in the next half-hour, gets a free tune from me, no purchase required, obviously

[gekko513]

So I'm going to predict 4:07pm
4:21pm UK time

[fracai]

I'll go for the hat trick at 4:44 UK. that's 11:44 where I am, seems a bit soon. But, I'll take it

4:44

[killmoms]

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but you can thank the geek community over at Slashdot; within the first few threads this had been put up:

http://itunescounter.ruud.org/

Enjoy.

--Cless

[backspinner]

we've got about 34000 songs to go to the first 100,000 mark, with about 400 songs a minute that's about 1,5 hour from now. my guess = 17:50 europe time

[gekko513]

I think I predicted to soon, but I'll stick by it just in case :)

[danieluk]

[grouse]

We're gonna need about 18,000 in ten minutes.

Oh well.

[grouse]

I'll go for the hat trick at 4:44 UK. that's 11:44 where I am, seems a bit soon. But, I'll take it

4:44

Certainly no later

[coumerelli]

My prediction: 11:32 CDT

and did you read this?
From apple's official rules: "6)...Each entrant is only eligible to win only one 20GB iPod and/or the grand prize."

So, pretty much, I'm gonna wait until the end to buy anything else. I don't want to win just one measly iPod when I could WIN IT ALL!!!!! MWHAAAAAHHAAAAHAHAA!!!!

Ok, seriously, I will wait to try and hit the 100,000,000 - nothing sooner.

[CyberB0b]

I updated my tracker, a.k.a CyberB0b's Guide To A Free iPod

http://ym.muda.org/itunes/

It's almost time, when the countdown hits zero, BUY BUY BUY!!!

[Dave00]

1st winner should be selected in the next few minutes. Current count = 95,090,625.

An interesting proposal would be to try to determine whether it would be more advantageous to try to time a win 50 times with one song each, or one time with 50 songs at once. It would seem initially that the second method (all at once) would give a greater chance of winning, but it would actually also seem to depend on the accuracy with which you could time your entry. (Which, as has been stated, is probably fairly low.)

If you were guaranteed your entries would be simultaneous/sequential (i.e., you buy 50 songs, you get entries 90,000,000 through 90,000,049) it'd almost be possible (depending on accuracy) to stack the deck and make money on the deal. The grand prize is a 17" powerbook, 10,000 itunes, and a 40g ipod, which would be what, around $13,000? So, if the order rate stayed the same (which it won't), and the counter on apple's website was in real-time, you'd be able to time your purchase to whenever the count was within 2,000 (since the counter goes up by about 2,000 with each update.) So, buy ~2500 songs at 99,998,000 and you're the grand prize winner. Of course, this won't work because EVERYONE will be trying to time it. But fun to think about.

--D

[grouse]

This is gonna upset people....

[coumerelli]

My prediction: 11:32 CDT

OK, so I was off by an hour...did I say 11.32 cetral DAYLIGHT time? I meant....EASTERN, yeah, yeah, that's what I meant to say....

[BlueDjinn]

Heh--server traffic must've just shot through the stratosphere; trying to make my purchase now and of course the rest of you are all doing the same thing at the same time...

Result? Spinning barber-shop pole city...

[jessefoxperry]

ok so who won?

[danieluk]

[coumerelli]

not me....I didn't buy...I'm holding out.

[FelixDerKater]

Well, it seems thereis too much traffic to get into my saved shopping card. Oh wel... Maybe it will work at the next 100K.

[CyberB0b]

Darn, I didn't win. :( Maybe next time I should buy a song.

[DWKlink]

Wow, somebody in the marketing department is getting a huge raise for thinking of this promotion. They're going to reach 100mil in no time!

[danieluk]

[mighty quinn]

I bought an album of sound effects.. 54 tracks for 9.99. I think I waited too long though. It was only 4 songs in when it updated. blast!!

[FelixDerKater]

Wow, somebody in the marketing department is getting a huge raise for thinking of this promotion. They're going to reach 100mil in no time!

No joke! The song count jumped from 95,097 to 95,101 in no time.

[jessefoxperry]

think they email you right away if you win?